Protein Cell 2017, 8(4):237–239
DOI 10.1007/s13238-016-0318-x
Protein & Cell
RECOLLECTION
Nathaniel Gist Gee’s contribution to biology
in modern China
Lei Fu&
Nathaniel Gist Gee (祁天锡, 1876–1937) was an American
biologist who lived in China for several decades. He greatly
contributed to the development of biology in modern China,
including the establishment of the first Biology Department in
China and introducing the biology graduate education to
China.
N. Gist Gee was born in Union, South Carolina, USA on
April 20, 1876. He attended Wofford College in 1892 where
he received his Master’s Degree. In 1901, after working at
Columbia College and other schools, he came to China and
was appointed Professor of Natural Sciences in Soochow
University. He devoted most of his time to the biology education of China, spending only a few months leave in his
native country taking care of his sick wife. He returned to
China after his wife’s death in 1921. First serving as representative of the Spencer Lens Company, he was then hired
by the China Medical Board of the Rockefeller Foundation.
He left China in 1932, and worked as Biology Professor in
London College until his death of illness (James, 1938;
Wang, 1940).
N. Gist Gee was the first science teacher from abroad
who reached the level of university instructor in China. As a
biologist, N. Gist Gee promoted the development of biology
in modern China, including biology education, investigation
of plants and animals, and the institutionalization of biology
research.
N. Gist Gee served as a professor in natural sciences at
Soochow University from 1901, where he taught biology,
physics, chemistry and other subjects for years. Then he
became the first Director of Biology Department of this university in 1912, which was the first independent biology
department in China. He put a special emphasis on scientific
research and founded the most advanced biology laboratory
in China at that time. He took students on field trips and led
them to pay attention to biological agriculture. He wrote A
Textbook of Botany for students, and introduced much
knowledge about native plants. Shih Jiyan (施季言) and Wu
Chenfu Francis (胡经甫) were the first Chinese biology
masters cultured in his department and graduated in 1919.
After graduation, Shih Jiyan remained working as school
superintendent in Soochow University. He was later
appointed President of Soochow University, which was
reestablished in 1952, in Taiwan. Wu Chenfu Francis
received his Ph.D. Degree in 1922 from Cornell University
and then returned to China. Wu Chenfu Francis was the
founder of modern entomotaxonomy in China (Li, 2012).
Many of N. Gist Gee’s students became leaders of biology
departments at other universities of China, such as Wu
Chenfu Francis at Yenching University, Nelson Chen (陈纳
逊) at the University of Nanking, Wang Chu-chia (王志稼) at
Shanghai University, Chen Tze Ying (陈子英) at Xiamen
University, Chu Yuan-Ting (朱元鼎) at St. John’s University,
and so on. These renowned Chinese scientists greatly promoted the development of biology in modern China. The
department maintained its excellent education on biology
after N. Gist Gee’s leaving the university, and several distinguished biologists and educators were cultivated there,
including Harry Zanyi Gaw (高尚荫), Chien Kang Liu (刘建
康), and Chia-Chen Tan (谈家桢), et al.
N. Gist Gee also stressed the importance of the popularity
of biology and elementary education. He was a biology
teacher in the middle school attached to Soochow University
for a few years and wrote books for public and middle school
students. In 1904, he published Life Histories of A Few
Common Insects, in which he quoted some Chinese idioms
such as Mantis stalks the cicada oriole in the post (Gee,
1904). He prepared a biology textbook in English for middle
school students named Introduction to Biology, published by
Commercial Press in 1913. He presented many photos and
pictures in this book, some of which were taken at Soochow
University and Saint John’s University in Shanghai. In order
to help Chinese students, he invited K. K. Woo (吴继杲) to
add Chinese technical terms to this textbook (Gee, 1913).
He compiled Science Reader, The Useful Knowledge
© The Author(s) 2016. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com and journal.hep.com.cn
Protein & Cell
Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China
& Correspondence: [email protected] (L. Fu)
Protein & Cell
RECOLLECTION
Lei Fu
Figure 1. N. Gist Gee in 1933.
Figure 2. Introduction to Biology, by N. Gist Gee.
Reader and other books to introduce the Chinese public the
knowledge about native Chinese plants and animals. Furthermore, Gist Gee wrote articles about nature and science
for students in magazines published by Commercial Press.
All of these publications were very popular and adopted by
several schools.
Since the beginning of his college career, Gist Gee was
interested in plant and animal taxonomy. During his spare
time, he traveled to investigate and collect plant and animal
specimens so that he could instruct his students with local
biological resources, thus advancing the development of
biology taxonomy in China. He published Catalogue of
Plants in Jiangsu Province in The National Review from
1913 and in Science from 1919-1921. Gist Gee’s publications in Science were translated by Chien Shung-Shu (钱崇
澍) and published by the Science Society of China. Additionally, most of the book was appended to A Textbook of
Botany cited above.
N. Gist Gee was keen to aquatic organisms and hoped to
found an institute to research fresh-water organisms. He
exchanged a lot of fresh-water sponge specimens with foreign biologists and museums and also published dozens of
articles in this research field. Through his work and articles,
Chinese biological resources gradually became known by
the world, and N. Gist Gee became a well-known authority
on fresh-water sponges. His work was succeeded by Wu
Chenfu Francis and his other students.
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N. Gist Gee was interested in birds as well, and he
compiled A Key to the Birds of Lower Yangtse Valley and A
Tentative List of Chinese Birds with Lacy I. Moffett and others. His work set examples for latter research. He also
published several articles on Chinese amphibians, reptiles,
mammals and other animals, with a few of the articles on
amphibians accomplished with A. M. Boring from Yenching
University (Zheng, 2015).
N. Gist Gee regarded it very important to the institutionalization of biology research in modern China. He joined
the Science Society of China to connect with Chinese scientists, and also launched the Peking Society of Natural
History with A. G. Grabau (葛利普), Chi Ping (秉志) and
other scientists in 1925. They distributed a magazine and
published many research articles. At the same time, they
were active for the popularity of science. As secretary and
president of the society, Gist Gee worked hard to communicate with scientists at home and abroad. He made the
society an important research and communication platform
for naturalists.
When he worked for the Rockefeller Foundation, N.
Gist Gee made great efforts to promote the establishment
of Fan Memorial Institute of Biology. The institute was set
up in 1928 by Chi Ping and Hu Hsen-hsu (胡先骕), and N.
Gist Gee was the only foreign member of the board.
© The Author(s) 2016. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com and journal.hep.com.cn
RECOLLECTION
Nathaniel Gist Gee’s contribution to biology in China
N. Gist Gee was a great scientist and made outstanding
contributions to the development of biology education and
research of China. He and his work were important in the
transmission of modern biology to China.
OPEN ACCESS
Gee NG (1904) Life histories of a few common insects. Educational
Association of China. (祁天锡. (1904). 昆虫学举隅. 益智书会.)
Gee NG (1913) Introduction to Biology. Commercial Press. (祁天锡.
(1913). 生物学初桄. 商务印书馆.)
James GN (1938) Nathaniel Gist Gee. Science 88:250
Li M (2012) Detour and return—Chenfu Wu’s interdisciplinary
research journey. Protein Cell 3:481–482
Wang C (1940) A brief history of Dr. Nathaniel Gist Gee. Science
24:69–70. (王志稼. (1940). 祁天锡博士事略.科学.1:69–70)
Zheng S (2015) Alice M. Boring: a pioneer in the study of Chinese
amphibians and reptiles. Protein Cell 6:625–627
Protein & Cell
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REFERENCES
© The Author(s) 2016. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com and journal.hep.com.cn
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